Library › St Optatus of Milevis › Against the Donatists
Against the Donatists
St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917
Book 1, The Division of This Work and the Contents of Its Several Books
But it seems to me that in the first place the cities, positions, and names of the Betrayers and schismatics should be pointed out.1 In this way the true authors of the crimes, concerning which you have written, may be convicted of their certain guilt.
Secondly,2 I shall have to say which is the Church, or where is to be found the One Church----which is the Church----because, besides the One Church, there is no other.
Thirdly, I shall prove that we did not ask for the troops and that what is said to have been done by the makers of Unity does not concern us.
In the fourth place, I shall show who is the sinner whose sacrifice God repudiates, or from whose Sacraments3 we must flee.
Fifthly, I shall treat of Baptism; and in the sixth place of your ill-considered assumptions and mistakes.
Notes
- The public records of each city, if searched, would show in which of these any persons had been guilty of the crime of Traditio, the names of the offenders, and whatever offices they might have held.
- St. Optatus thinks it well to deal first with the quaestio facti. Having done this (in Book I), he will come secondly (in Book II) to the quaestio iuris.
- oleum. (Cf. note 3, p. 11.)